AUT-2B-HOME IN CAROLINA ~ Teaching our twenty-five-year-old daughter with autism and aphasia, who is still learning about God, the world, and its people with a little help from Charlotte Mason

Friday, December 09, 2011

101 Plus One for Good Luck

Around this time last year, I shared Pamela narrating a fairy tale in Spanish (Ricitos de Oro y los tres osos). We spent the fall listening to another fairy tale (Caperucita Roja). New readers to my blog may wonder why Pamela is learning Spanish when she is still working on English as a first language. My husband was born and raised in Latin America. Half of our extended family is fluent in English and Spanish, and we occasionally travel to El Salvador to visit them. More importantly, Pamela enjoys learning her father's language.

Back in 2010, I shared our plan to build an ear for Spanish. We teach Spanish completely orally through audio books while we study and point to pictures and sing folk songs. Last year's blog post explains our rationale, so I will not repeat it here. Because Steve is in Kansas, we found it hard to record series, so we are testing out a program for CLUSA that meets the criteria of focusing on audio and pictures in the early stages of picking up a second language. The two of us are making progress in hearing Spanish and speaking it a bit.

While we are focusing on receptive language, her expressive language is coming along, too. I assessed how her Spanish is coming along in several ways. I said words in Spanish and she pointed to pictures and I said words in Spanish and she told me what they meant in English. Pamela sang two folk songs that she learned this year ("El Coqui" and "Al Tambor"). She also narrated "Little Red Riding Hood" in Spanish while looking at pictures scanned and printed from the storybook (which I keep hidden to prevent her from seeing written words). Pamela correctly identified 102 words or phrases covered this term. She knows even more words from last year, so her understanding of Spanish is improving. She is doing so well, I think she will be ready for copywork and reading next year!

When you watch the video of Pamela, you might think she is reading. She is not. She is looking at pictures of the story and narrating what she recalls. I love how Pamela references me by turning to look at me face-to-face when she needs help with a word. She did this three times for orejas, nariz, and leñador. Her narration is a combination of memorized script but also her original wording. Many times in her narration, she uses different words not originally in the book.

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